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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29586660">Real Doll: A Fairytale</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Still_beating_heart/pseuds/Still_beating_heart'>Still_beating_heart</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shameless (US)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fairy Tale Style, M/M, Real Doll Ian Gallagher, real doll</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:35:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,410</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29586660</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Still_beating_heart/pseuds/Still_beating_heart</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A fairytale in which true love's kiss rescues Ian from a lifetime of navigating the non-con perils of being a real doll.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Real Doll: A Fairytale</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I don't know if I'm head-hopping or attempting an omnipresent narrator, but just roll with it.  Also, you can laugh.  It's meant to be mostly silly.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Once upon a time in a bustling city in a rundown house under the clanging L lived a boy named Mikhailo.  Mikhailo was a bright boy with a vivid imagination and a penchant for mischief.  His mother used to say to him with a twinkle in her eye, "now remember son to never let your father see your true self."  When he was just a lad, he hadn't the slightest idea what she meant by that.  And sadly, she died long before he found out what his true self truly was.  </p><p>All his life to that point he'd been a carefree, happy young boy.  But with the passing of his mother he was left in the evil hands of his vicious, hateful father.  His father who wanted nothing more than to break him down and destroy all the beautiful things about him.  </p><p>Mikhailo learned to never allow love in.  Since a person can only harm another if there is love and affection there to begin with.  He grew to be a very lonely boy.  And that loneliness made him brash, careless, and rude.  It made him build a wall up around himself and his heart.  He knew this was the right thing for him to keep himself safe from his evil father's wrath.  </p><p>As the years passed and his siblings moved away, created lives of their own or were locked away like their father said they would all eventually be, Mikhailo found that loneliness to be unbearable.  But he also knew he could never show his true self, not with his evil father still lurking in his nightmares, and in his every day life.  He knew he wasn't like the other boys.  And he knew his father could never know.  </p><p>When Mikhailo got a job at a factory, a factory that made sex toys, and he had a paycheck that could afford him a place of his own he moved as far away from his old house beneath the clanging L as he could.  Which wasn't really very far since bustling cities are expensive and jobs at factories do not come with enough digits to afford much more than a rundown house further down the block from the clanging L.  But it was a start.  A start that Mikhailo so desperately needed.  His house was small, the paint was chipped, the pipes leaked and he was quite sure that one of the walls was going to cave in with the next windstorm.  But none of this mattered.  What mattered was the taste of freedom.  Once Mikhailo (or Mickey as he had become known) settled into his freedom he also found that he was settling into his true self.  The true self that his mother had warned him against being in front of his father. Mickey wasn't like the other boys and that was okay.  </p><p>The factory where he worked began to make Real Dolls and the day he laid eyes upon a ginger haired, long and lean doll with green eyes was when his entire world changed.  How Mickey longed for that doll.  How he wanted to bring him home and spend some quality time with him.  The queer thing was how he felt as though he wanted to speak to the doll, how he wanted to tell him of his day, of his life, of his dreams and goals.  How he felt as though the doll just understood him, as though he was listening intently to every word Mickey said every time he visited him on his stand in the factory as he was being built, as details were being added to make him evermore realistic.  It was astounding.  On the day they added his soft eyelashes Mickey decided he would have that doll.  He would take an advance on his paycheck or he would steal it.  If it took falling into criminal activities, he was not opposed to it, the only thing he wanted was that doll to come home with him.  </p><p>As the story is told, Mikhailo was given the doll as a two year anniversary gift from his coworkers and manager.  His loneliness was not well hidden and it hadn't taken them long to understand that he was needing the company of this doll he had become so enraptured by.</p><p>The day the doll was delivered, he was all packaged up with a note that introduced him as Curtis.  A name that Mickey quickly threw out the proverbial window for something more fitting: Ian.  As he reminded him of a kid he once knew, a red-haired firecracker with a dopey smile and an inherently optimistic world view.  There was something of this doll that made Mickey feel those things too, made him feel the most optimism he had in his entire life.  </p><p>Once removed from the packaging, Mickey found him some clothing that would have to suffice.  As he felt it was inappropriate to take advantage before they got to know each other and it was rather awkward for Ian to be sitting around in his kitchen with no clothes on.  Also distracting.  Mickey found himself so lost in the features of the doll, that he couldn't believe he was just a doll.  He had to have been real.  He was so breathtakingly perfect, every single freckle and every hue of his irises.  The presence of him seemed to calm the itch under Mickey's skin.  The itch to be understood, to be loved and to no longer be lonely.  </p><p>He sat across the table from Ian at suppertime, watching the shadows play games on his cheekbones and in the depth of his eyes.  Mickey found himself talking to the doll, telling him about this childhood under the L.  Sharing details about his true self that he'd never shared with another soul before, always ashamed to do so.  He told Ian about his day to day life, about his plans for renovating the house, about his goals of going back to school some day when he could afford it.  He brought Ian to his bed that night but found it rather appalling to even consider doing the things to him that he was built for.  It wasn't as though Ian could agree to Mickey's advances.  So instead he lay beside him, staring at the ceiling and telling him how he'd never been with a man.  He'd never been with anyone.  Had always been too afraid to give into his sexual desires as his evil father had made it well known he'd kill him if he was a faggot.  </p><p>The days went on, Mickey went to work in the morning with a smile on his face.  He came home in the evening with more to say to Ian, with more tales to regal and more ideas to share.  He lay beside him every night and spoke of his needs and wants.  He even discovered through talking that he had some kinks he would some day like to try with the right man.  With Ian's silent understanding, he found himself seeking pleasure of his own hand beside Ian.  Never touching him or getting him messed with bodily fluids.  Even though Ian was made for such things Mickey found it unsettling to have his first sexual encounter this way.  So he pleasured himself instead.  With Ian's silent support beside him, and he found himself holding the doll's hand sometimes during, always after, and constantly falling asleep with his fingers tangled through Ian's.  He'd often wake the same way, sometimes finding that he'd rearranged them in the night to a spooning position that he felt so very safe inside of.  </p><p>The days became weeks and then slowly faded into months.  With Ian's constant companionship Mickey found himself reaching some of his goals he'd set for himself and for the house.  He found himself whistling and sometimes even singing to himself as he worked while Ian looked on.  </p><p>It was early winter when Mickey realized it was not right.  He was not supposed to feel so strongly for a doll.  A doll that was meant for lewd and lascivious deeds.  So with a tear in his eye and a quiver in his voice he prepared Ian to be sold.  As he was an untouched sex companion he could have so much brighter a future elsewhere, with someone who would treat him the way he was built to be treated.  As Mickey dressed him for the photos he would post on the internet with his ad, he wiped a tear off his cheek with a harsh knuckle, reminding himself that he was meant to be a lonely boy, to never be his true self.  His voice shaking, he told Ian, "sorry Tough Guy, but our time here has come to an end.  I'm goin' fuckin' crazy talkin' to a damn doll actin' like you're a real person or some shit."</p><p>And with that he leaned in, unable to stop himself and pressed his lips slowly over Ian's.  His still, silent, and room temperature lips.  As Mickey sucked in a breath to calm the nerves, and the horrible dread in the pit of his stomach at having to give up his companion for the sake of his sanity, he lingered there against his lips.  Wondering if maybe he was wrong all this time and he should just show the doll the good time it promised on all the packages.  He breathed against his cold lips, and felt his hands rising to grasp at his head as though he could angle the doll properly for a deep, true, and honest kiss.  </p><p>Imagine his surprise when the lips of the Real Doll parted, when a hot gust of breath exited and his tongue met Mickey's just beyond his straight, white teeth.  Mickey jerked back in surprise, finding himself face to face with a blinking, moving, animated doll.  </p><p>"The fuck is goin' on here?!" he yelped as he stepped away, reaching for his Ruger to take care of this AI invader surely here to take over the world one lonely moron at a time.   </p><p>The doll, Ian, he raised his hand in the space between them like he was offering peace.  His eyes wide with shock and his very human body very confused at the ability to move once again, "Mickey, please don't shoot me."</p><p>Mickey's hands trembled but he held the gun steady in the direction of the doll's chest, knowing now that having to shoot his companion dead was much worse than selling him.  But he needed to know the truth behind this.  And he needed to know it now.</p><p>"Then get talkin' you robot son of a bitch, and get talkin' quick or I'll put a bullet in your stupid AI heart, and then two to your AI head and hope that does the trick.  And if it don't, then I got an ax and I ain't afraid to use it until you're nothin' but little pieces of tech scattered all over this shithole house that your dumbass got me all excited about fixing up!"</p><p>"I, I guess I, oh shit," Ian's feeling was rapidly returning to his limbs that had far too long been unused.  He found it hard to stand, he was wobbly like a baby deer and everything seemed too much.  So he took a deep breath and focused on the beauty of Mickey's blue eyes, "the last thing I remember before you took me home was pissing off my neighbor by breaking into her house to steal her stash.  She promised I'd never do that again and then she said some words in a different language, threw a handful of something sharp and spicy at me and told me only the kiss of my one true love could break this spell."</p><p>Mickey lowers the gun only slightly, raising one hand to thumb at his nose as his disbelief settles in his chest, "uh, what now?"</p><p>"Yeah.  I know it sounds crazy, but I," Ian's wobbly legs finally give out on him and he plops down on the couch with a resigned sigh, "I was stuck that way listening to you and wanting to talk to you and tell you how much I wanted to be a part of all your plans, how much I could understand about not being allowed to be your true self, how much I wanted to touch you and kiss you and be with you.  But I couldn't say a fucking word and it was so..."</p><p>Ian's voice is cut off in his mouth when Mickey's lips seal over them to kiss him roughly, deeply, and thoroughly.  He doesn't break away until they have both lost the air in their lungs and it is necessary to gulp for breath.  With hazy eyes and pounding hearts they linger close, just watching one another until Mickey states, "I knew I wasn't fucking crazy.  Fuck, you had me goin' there for a minute thinkin' I was losing my marbles."</p><p>"You think you were losing your marbles Mick?!  I was stuck in the body of a Real Doll terrified of who was going to bring me home and do all kinds of fucked up shit to me!"</p><p>"Good point.  So you really are the Gallagher kid then?"</p><p>"Who the fuck else would I be?"</p><p>Mickey feels himself relax, watches his hand rise to slide over Ian's cheek, "I don't think that's really what they meant by Real Doll, but fuck am I relieved."</p><p>"Me too.  And thank you for respecting me," Ian tilts his head back to look at Mickey, his body beginning to feel closer to alive with every breath he takes.  </p><p>"So my true self," Mickey wonders after some unquantified amount of time spent gazing lovingly into each other's eyes, "that doesn't freak you out?"</p><p>"Hell no.  Your true self does the opposite actually, it turns me the fuck on," Ian's smile is so bright and so filled with life that Mickey can barely remember what his face looked like when he was frozen behind the plastic and silicone of a Real Doll.  </p><p>True love's kiss had most certainly saved Ian from a lifetime of being nothing more than a sex doll.  And true love's kiss had given Mickey the permission to fully become his true self and be proud of it.</p><p>And to truly live happily ever after, let it be known that Mickey's evil father was struck by lighting and is very very dead.</p><p>The End</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Don't ask.  I have no clue.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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